As bird flu outbreaks continue to affect animals, experts answer questions about keeping pets and their owners healthy

The ongoing bird flu outbreak has led to wild bird deaths, slaughtered livestock, and hazardous conditions for dairy industry workers.

This is the third case of avian influenza uncovered in commercial poultry in Mississippi since the spring of 2023.

The US Department of Agriculture announced it will allocate $100 million to develop vaccines and other therapies to help contain the spread of bird flu on poultry and dairy farms

The Mississippi Board of Animal Health (MBAH) announced that poultry from a commercial broiler breeder chicken flock in Mississippi tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Officials with the MBAH were notified by the U.

The US government is considering bird flu vaccines to prevent the mass culling of infected chickens, which has driven egg prices to nearly $6 per dozen.

The move has been delayed in part because of concerns it could jeopardize chicken exports worth billions of dollars a year.

Vaccines could be a key means of suppressing bird flu and avoiding the slaughter of millions of chickens, which is blamed for egg prices averaging nearly $5 a dozen.

Chicken meat producers remain the most resistant to vaccines because of concerns they could harm meat exports, which totaled nearly $4.7 billion last year.